33 Countries of Origin’ Profiles

SENEGAL and men and in 2010, the Parliament adopted a gender parity law w hich requires political parties to introduce gender parity in electoral lists ensuring that at least 50% of candidates in local and national elections are women, but women faces many obstacles to the full participation in the economic life and educational system of the country 13 . Literacy rates of women are lower than men and, according to the UN, only 20% of women participate in the work force; most of them, working in the informal economy, with low wages, unsafe working conditions and not benefiting from basic social services. 14 The government has established a rural development agency to involve women more actively and, due to the fact that a lot of young men decides to leave the small villages, rural women have started to be involved in managing village forestry resources; in urban areas women more independent and work outside the home . 15 The family code establish the marital power so the husband makes legal decisions for his wife; among most ethnic groups, also other discriminatory practices affects the family’s relationship and inheritance , especially in rural areas where women are traditionally engaged in household chores and childcare, such as repudiation, food prohibitions, taboos, difficulties to access to the land without intermediation of a man 16 . GBV: Senegal has a solid legal framework to protect women from violence and has signed the most important international agreements on the issue such us the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination against Women (in 1985), and the Optional Protocol on violence against women , in 2000 Senegal ratified the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa in 2005. The Government has implemented a National Strategy for Gender Equality developed to run from 2005-2015 17 . The Parliament also adopted legislation mandating fines and prison terms of up to three years for sexual harassment, domestic violence is punishable but no law address the spousal rape 18 ; both the Constitution and the Family Code have forbidden forced marriage, establishing fines and prison sentences for public officials who endorse these practices; the article 299 bis of Criminal Code criminalizes excision 19 . Despite this framework, it seems that this legal system in practice is not really effective in preventing crimes or punishing the perpetrators, and few cases reach the court. While in urban areas laws are generally respected, rural areas are still dominated religious and traditional beliefs and few women are aware of the legal rights. Some ethnic groups still practised FGM as arranged marriages. The percentage of women aged 20 to 24 years who were first married or in union before age 18 is around 32%) and a quarter of Senegalese women have experienced genital cutting (mainly during the childhood ) 20 and almost all girls in the northern Fouta region were victims of FGM/C. FGM is more common among Muslims than Christians and some ethnic groups (Mandingue followed by the Soninké, Poular and Diola), the regions with the highest prevalence are in the south and east. FGM is seen as part of cultural identity: for some Diola is part of initiation into their Islamic women’s secret society (ñaakaya); for Poular and Mandingue is a way to ensure their daughter’s virginity at marriage, for 1 3 http://www.encyclopedia.com/places/africa/senegal-political-geography/senegal 1 4 http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=15857&LangID=E 1 5 http://www.everyculture.com/Sa-Th/Senegal.html 16 https ://www.ecoi.net/local_link/337229/466989_en.html 17 https ://www.genderindex.org/country/senegal/ 1 8 http://www.encyclopedia.com/places/africa/senegal-political-geography/senegal 19 http s://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/pages/attachments/2015/12/08/sen104587.fe_.pdf 20 https://agrilinks.org/sites/default/files/resource/files/ING%20Landscape%20Study%20%282016 %29%20Senegal%20-%20published%202015_12_20.pdf